National Professional Qualification for Senior Leadership – NPQSL

Benefit from our evidence-informed curriculum to help you put your learning into practice in your school or trust.

Develop skills on school improvement: throughout the course, you’ll develop your knowledge and skills on school improvement at senior leadership level. This programme aims to develop expertise that is flexible and allows you to respond to the challenges you will encounter in a range of contexts.

• Gain an NPQ Senior Leadership accreditation
• Enjoy flexible learning to suit your timetable
• Learn from leadership experts

Who is this NPQ suitable for?

Must be, or are aspiring to be, a senior leader with cross-school responsibilities. Participants must be at middle leadership or above currently. NPQs are not suitable for ECTs.

Example roles include:

Assistant Headteacher/Associate Assistant Headteacher | Deputy Headteacher/ Vice Principal | Head of Faculty / Department / Subject lead,  Head of Year | Head of Early Years | Second in Maths | SENCO | Head of ITT | Head of primary key stage / Head of Early Years

Benefits for you

• Build your confidence:  learn how to excel as a leader and get the support you need to take the next step in your career.
• Access the latest research:  benefit from the latest evidence-based learning and approaches to great teaching and leadership. See how it can improve schools and change lives.
• Enact positive change:  Translate what you’ve learned on this programme to your own school context. We’ll help you  do this by providing models and examples that seek to make the link between theory and  practice concrete.
• Build your network:  you’ll connect with other senior leaders, sharing your experiences and building a strong  support network that lasts long after you finish the course

Benefits for your school

• Create a common knowledge base: NPQ qualifications are aligned, so you can have confidence that all your educators will share a common language and framework to develop your school or trust.
• Support your leaders: senior leaders will be given the tools to drill down into specific areas of leadership to improve their knowledge, make evidence-informed decisions and action positive change.
• Learn from evidence:  senior Leaders will be introduced to evidence-informed practices straightaway. This will help them develop strategies to improve teaching and pupil performance at your school.
• Make a leadership pipeline:  The programme will help to identify future leaders and create a positive culture where  teachers can develop and thrive.
• Boost attainment:  Studies show that high-quality continuous professional development can improve pupil  outcomes almost as effectively as having a teacher with 10 years’ experience in the  classroom.

About the course

The NPQ in Senior Leadership course follows the Department for Education’s National Professional Qualification: Senior Leadership.

You will learn how to:

• Set clear goals and communicate shared values that improve the culture in your classrooms and school
• Establish a safe and positive environment for pupils
• Support colleagues to meet individual needs and make sure all pupils have access to a rich curriculum
• Lead school-wide professional development for staff
• Make and act on evidence-informed decisions
• Work well with parents, carers, other schools and the wider community
• Lead by example, be accountable for decisions and make sure colleagues know their responsibilities.

Our programme structure

Our ‘little and often’ approach means you can engage with our NPQs around your work schedule, with minimal time needed out of school: there is one face to face launch conference to introduce you to the programme, and a second conference in year 2 where you will meet with your fellow participants and your facilitators.  There are seven 2-hour online facilitated twilight sessions across the year to reinforce your guided self-study online.  Your online study which can be done at a time to suit you and will take around 45 minutes to an hour each week.

Final assessment

Our NPQ courses no longer include a large project at the end. Instead, you’ll sit an ‘open book’ style assessment in which you respond to a short case study.

The assessment window starts at the end of the 18-month programme.

During this time:

• You’ll be given an eight-day window to complete the case study.
• There are two assessment windows every year, and participants can sit the assessment twice, if they need to.
• You need to pass the assessment and engage with 90% of the course to qualify for the NPQ accreditation.
• We will offer two webinars and live clinic in advance of the assessment window to support you.

Costs and scholarship funding

New funding arrangements for NPQs – applications open on 1st July 2024

The DfE have announced that NPQ funding from Autumn 2024 will be targeted to those teachers and leaders serving more disadvantaged communities.

There will now be a capped number of funded 10,000 places nationally. Funding for the April 2025 cohorts and beyond has not been confirmed.

Scholarship-funded places are extremely limited on each NPQ programme, so access to funding will be subject to availability. 

To have the best chance of claiming a funded place, please apply as soon as possible to the DfE AND Ambition Institute via our application process once applications open on 1st July 2024: participants from eligible schools identified below will be prioritised on a first come first served basis. Other places are available at a cost to schools and settings.

For the NPQ in Senior Leadership, funded scholarships will be available on a first come first served basis for those who meet the following criteria:

• Work in the 50% of schools with the highest proportion of students who attract pupil premium funding or early years settings identified as having high disadvantage in England

If you’re unsure whether you will qualify for this ‘pupil premium’ based on funding, please use Ambition Institute’s online eligibility check tool.  Some nurseries are not available yet on the tool. If you work in a nursery and / or you cannot see your school or setting, please contact us directly at [email protected]

Scholarship-funded places are limited, so access to funding will be subject to availability. To have the best chance of claiming a funded place, please apply as soon as possible once applications open. 

Costs for others, such as those in independent schools or those who do not meet this criteria is £1139 + VAT

How to apply

Applications close in early September in readiness for an October start.